By Jaime Lueke
Kentucky Lantern
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brandon Carr’s criticism of comedian Jimmy Kimmel was “absolutely inappropriate.”
“The FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I’ll fight any — any — attempt by the government to get involved with speech. I will fight,” Paul said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
At the same time, Paul said, “people have to also realize that despicable comments, you have the right to say them, but you don’t have the right to employment.”
Sen. Rand Paul (File photo)
The Kentucky Republican dodged saying anything directly critical of President Donald Trump as host Kristen Welker asked about Trump’s threats to broadcasters’ license over negative coverage of him and the president’s demands over the weekend that Attorney General Pam Bondi criminally prosecute his political enemies.
“I think lawfare in all forms is bad,” said Paul, asserting that Democrats had misused the justice system to unfairly punish Trump when Democrat Joe Biden was president.
“It’s wrong now. But you have to put it into context also and acknowledge that the king of all lawfare was Biden and the Democrats for four years. What they did to Donald Trump was an abomination. But yes, it is not right for the Trump administration to do the same thing.”
Paul also contended that the Biden administration had engaged in censorship, pressuring social media companies during the pandemic to police content related to COVID-19.
ABC, which is owned by Disney, suspended comedian Kimmel’s late-night show after FCC chairman Carr criticized some of his remarks about the killing of right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk and Trump’s response to it.
Paul said that he and his wife, Kelly Paul, had spoken at Kirk events, including on college campuses. Kirk was debating with students at a college in Utah when he was fatally wounded.
Paul said that Kirk stood out from “a lot of the argumentation you see either on TV or on the internet where everybody’s drowning people out” because of his willingness to hear opposing points of view.
“He actually would listen to people. So I think he’ll be remembered for that and also being remembered for a guy that was trying to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that I think should be applauded.”
With the risk of a government shutdown looming at month’s end if the Senate cannot agree on a temporary spending plan, Paul, a deficit hawk, said, “I’m not going to vote for the Republican plan or the Democrat plan. I think eventually they come together. But typically, the compromise is to make things worse. The compromise through the years is the right gets more military spending, the left gets more welfare spending, and the deficit continues to explode.
“Our debt has been downgraded; our triple A rating has been taken away. There is unrest, and I do believe that we face serious problems as a country if we don’t do something so simple as just start spending what comes in. Balance our budget.”
Paul was one of only two Senate Republicans to vote against Trump’s tax and spending bill in July.
This story first appeared in the Kentucky Lantern, a part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit new organization. It is reprinted here under Creative Commmons license.